


may the stars never burn out

by CkyKing



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Infinity Gems, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 20:36:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14528676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CkyKing/pseuds/CkyKing
Summary: “If you throw another moon at me, I’m going to lose it.”This was it. This was the end. Tony knew it as surely as he knew the arc reactor whirring desperately in his chest—or was that his heart?His nanites count flashed red in the lower left corner of his vision before he muted it with a thought, anger and fear and undilutedrecognitionflashing like lightning down his every nerve, the armor rippling and resettling with each wave.[Tony Stark at the end of the everything: hope shines brightest in the darkest of places]





	may the stars never burn out

**Author's Note:**

> because infinity war wrecked me and i needed to deal with the feelings somehow

“If you throw another moon at me, I’m going to lose it.”

This was it. This was the end. Tony knew it as surely as he knew the arc reactor whirring desperately in his chest—or was that his heart?

His nanites count flashed red in the lower left corner of his vision before he muted it with a thought, anger and fear and undiluted _recognition_ flashing like lightning down his every nerve, the armor rippling and resettling with each wave.

 _ThanosThanosThanos_ , his mind whispered, howled. The faceless entity that had plagued his every waking thought for six years, the mind behind New York’s invasion, behind Ultron’s feverish belief, behind this last wave of attack, the last push before the universe crumbled in on itself, and Tony with it.

“Stark.”

Shock spread like static at that single word, a name that should have never been known beyond the confines of Earth, and yet...The worry, the fear, the pain, it all fell away.

He never dealt well with the unknowable, sought to peel it back and make sense of it, to lay it in neat sections across holograms and paper; to learn it, to know it, to make it his and remake it in the name of advancement. But there were things that were never meant to be seen, that haunted dreams and fought back the brave few who dared approach them.

A faceless force bent on Earth’s destruction was one of them, a shadow more than a physical threat, dread given form and hounding him as he desperately tried to keep everyone safe, to encase this tiny blue planet in metal and keep it that way until the skies finally cleared.

But here, here he was _known_ , and knowing was a double-edged sword; because kinship extended both ways, and that meant he had a chance, a sliver of possibility, even one as small as a chance in fourteen millions.

He just had to reach, to still his mind long enough to get a grasp on Thanos and on what brought them together, as loath as he was to do so. But the universe – _Earth_ – didn’t care about what he wanted, only what he needed to do—and he would, a thousand times over.

“You know me?”

Tony asked, heart in his throat and Extremis singing in his veins, information cascading across millions of synapses in starbursts of blue and white, the nanites swimming in his blood kicking into overdrive in preparation for one final clash.

“I do.”

_Do you know me as I do you?_

_Did you wake up screaming with my name on your lips?_

_Did you feel my eyes on you as the world passed you by?_

A smile twisted the Titan’s features as he looked at Tony, his gaze bypassing the blank facade of the armor to meet his directly, seemingly reading all that he did not – refused – to say.

“You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.”

Fury, pure and radiant, exploded in his chest; crystallized his battle-scarred heart and filled his veins with glorious ice.

 _This_ , this was the moment he had waited for, this single second where the veil was lifted from his eyes and he _understood_.

He understood a mind so similar to his it scared him, an experience that derailed a life and set it on a new course. A future foreseen and not averted because people refused to see, could not understand how thousands of decisions branched off and reached their conclusion.

(In his darkest moments, Tony had retreated into litterature, found solace in the stories of those doomed to worse fates than his own.

Cassandra had always a been a favorite of his.

“And it's all the same if nothing of mine persuades you, of course: the future will come; and you will soon be at my side to pity and call me too true a prophet.” He had whispered under his breath as his Oracles picked up the first signals of many from deep space.)

But the worry, the pain, the fear, the billions of deaths that followed? A conclusion so erroneous it turned his stomach? This, he refused to accept.

How could anyone looked at the entire universe and think that death was the only answer? That species that had fought and struggled to stay alive and prosper would not adapt if given the time and chance?

Tony had been scared before, scared of seeing himself reflected in a mirror if he looked too closely at his opponent, but in this moment, frozen in time? Their differences couldn’t have been more glaring.

And this was all he needed to act.

“My only curse is you.”

The world grew distant as thousands of plans were considered and discarded in an instant, equations growing in his mind as the Bleeding Edge shifted from blades to anchors, from cannons to wings, as beautifully responsive as ever even as it faced artifacts born at the very beginning of the universe.

Energy readings spiked and swelled as Thanos bent reality to his will, cut space to shreds and brought powers that had reduced planets to cinders against him. Yet he held strong, arc reactor glowing brighter the longer it stayed in the Stones’ presence, Tesseract-blue and as strong a containment as ever.

This close, Tony didn’t even need sensors to identify which Stone’s power to counteract, his very bones humming in time with their song: Space, low and comforting; Power, high-pitched and frantic; Reality, the discordant note amongst the others; and finally, Soul, stubbornly silent in spite of the Gauntlet’s urging.

When it failed, Thanos resorted to brute strength, blow after blow raining against the armor, forcing it to rebuild itself as fast as it was broken down until his HUD shrilled red, warnings after warnings piling on top of each other, his reservoir finally running on empty.

But he was used to this by now, had had enhanced strength turned against him, been beaten into the ground by it. He wouldn’t be Tony Stark if he hadn’t taken it into account in his new iteration.

Nanotech stubbornly clung to his arms and legs as Thanos bore down on him, venting kinetic energy into the ground below, forcing his limbs to move and minimize strain until, finally, an opening revealed itself.

With a kick that would have made Natasha proud, Tony disengaged from Thanos, using momentum to crush his arm to the ground and hold it there, armor locking securely around it and increasing its density to match the Titan’s monstrous strength.

Painfully aware of the short window of opportunity, Tony _turned_ , his whole body following the movement, limiters released one after the other as his fist hammered into the Titan’s face, driving his head back for the first time in their fight and separating them from one another.

Vision fading to dark and back, Tony struggled to his feet, the sound of their respective breathing the only thing breaking the silence of the deserted planet.

And then—a laugh.

“All that for a drop of blood, huh?”

Faster than his mind could comprehend, Thanos was in front of him, gauntleted arm pulling back as metal formed around his fist in a parody of Tony’s own greatest weapon, the Reality Stone highlighting the world in crimson before—

The world held its breath.

Tony, Earth’s so-called greatest defender, slumped forward over Thanos’ fist, the golden blade protruding from his chest the only thing keeping him up.

Long fingers, strong and scarred, splayed across the wound, holding it close as the blade dug deeper, unmindful of the way Thanos guided him down, slowly and carefully; the faint impression of long, dark hair trailing across his cheeks following him down and down.

He would have protested the treatment but his body did it in his stead, blood staining his lips and teeth red as he gasped, trying and failing to fill his lungs, shock and his injuries compounding together to leave him open-mouthed and shell-shocked, a broken puppet in the Titan’s hands.

Tony could only look at Thanos, his face filling his vision as he brought a large hand to his head and sifted bloody fingers through his hair, holding him in place and locking their gazes together.

Poison welled up in his throat when he saw a glimpse of understanding and sympathy reflected back at him and he wished with all of his remaining strength for something, anything to spit back—but only blood dribbled down his chin, a fitting answer for the pitiful state he was in.

Still, he had one last card to play.

Extremis quietly whirred away as Tony brought a hand up to rest on the Gauntlet, seemingly searching for support.

This time, his sight grew white and hazy, softening around the edges as iron was pulled from his blood until the bare minimum was left, as palladium was pulled from the scarred tissues of his chest.

He forced himself to refocus, to keep the charade up just a little bit longer as Thanos started talking again, ignoring the wounds silently opening across his arm and fingers, hidden underneath the tattered remains of his undersuit.

“You truly do have my respect, Stark.” Thanos said, somehow sounding sincere even as the one and only wound they managed to inflict him bled sluggishly. Thoughtlessly, he swiped a thumb below Tony’s lips, wiping away blood as if he had done it a thousand times, and he barely resisted the urge to try and bite it off, one last spat in the face of the greatest threat he had ever encountered.

“When I’m done, half of humanity will—”

Bleeding Edge burst from Tony’s arm in spikes and whips of metals, burning repulsor-blue as they grew chaotically from his blood and bones, targeting the vulnerable flesh above the Gauntlet. The Stones’ song grew fevered in pitch as the arc reactor forcefully harmonized with them, harnessing their power and turning it back against them, a dampener turned amplifier for a brief moment.

Thanos’ arm spasmed under his hand, and for one, breathless moment, Tony _hoped_.

And then...the pain of his body being torn apart from the inside out smoothed out, and faded entirely, leaving only softness behind.

Opening the eyes he had not realized had closed, Tony gazed at his now closed fist, still resting on the Gauntlet, and pried it open, one finger at a time, resignation simmering low in his gut.

Flower petals, incongruously white amidst the blood and dust, floated off one after the other, skimming past his face and dancing away in the burning breeze, taking with them humanity’s last hope.

 _Lilies,_  he thought dispassionately as a sob burst out of his chest, heedless of pain. _Mom’s favourites._

“A fighter until the very end. Truly, Stark, it is a pity we did not meet in other circumstances.”  Thanos complimented as he retracted his blade and finally let Tony go, stepping back and slowly bringing the Gauntlet to bear.

“I hope for their sake that humanity will remember you, Stark.”

 _You can’t give up now_ , _Stark_ a voice whispered from the borders of his fading mind as the world was tinged green.

The hands holding his wound close tightened and the impression of dark hair grew stronger. Without needing to look down, he knew them to be green.

_Listen, I don’t have much time. The Soul Stone is not complete, do you hear me? He only has half of it! You still have a chance!_

_Unlike the other Stones, it exists on two planes. Because of me, he holds its container. But the spiritual half is still safe._ Flashes of a planet lost to an eternal eclipse, buried in snow, alien yet strangely familiar.

 _Don’t fall into his hands like I did._ A request and a demand, trust that transcended time and space.

 _Good luck, Tony...and please, tell them I love them._ The voice softened, just once, before fading away, borne away by the wind just like the flowers before them.

The Soul Stone hummed to life as her – her? – last words sparked across the expanse of his mind, and an answering fire lit up in his heart.

The Time Stone _howled_ as it strained against the combined might of all the others.

The Soul Stone’s song grew deeper, and the universe was awash with warm, golden light.


End file.
